The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Moses: The Story of The Cow

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The Story of The Cow What is mentioned about the interpretations of the holy phrases concerning this story as attributed to the Household (PUT) is that the cow was for a kid of the Israelites and he was good to his father, and it is mentioned that he had a desired commodity so some people came asking for his commodity while it was in his house which was locked and the key was under the head of his father who was sleeping that time so he hated to wake up his father, so when his father woke up and knew the story he blamed him and the kid's answer was: I hated to wake you up and disturb your sleeping, so his father said with happiness for his kid's goodness: I made this cow for you to compensate you for what you lost from not selling your commodity, and then he thanked God for the goodness of his kid towards him and said blessings for his cow, and in that while there was another event taking place which was a great one and that is there was a murdered man of the Israelites that his killer was not known and to know his killer is not something possible except by a miracle for there were no signs or clues, and to kill someone was something extremely horrible for them, and God's will desired that the dead man should be stroke with a part of the cow that would be slain and then God will resurrect him to tell his killer, and God desired that the cow is the one mentioned before.
They say about the reason for the murder is that there was a woman of the Israelites with extreme beauty, and she was engaged to a good man of the Israelites and a scholar and she accepted him, and then his cousin who was an evil-doer knew about it so he went to ask her for engagement but she refused him, and so then he envied his cousin because she had accepted him instead of him, so he watched for his cousin and got ready for him and then killed him by chance and carried his body to Moses and said to him: O prophet of God, this is my cousin and he was killed, he (Moses) asked him: who killed him? He answered: I do not know, and killing someone among the Israelites was something extremely horrible as we mentioned before, and so Moses saw it something terrifying to see a killed man, and then the Israelites gathered together with him and asked him: what do you think O prophet of God? Then Moses ordered them by a commandment from God to slay a cow, and it was supposed that cow in special to show the killer of the man, so when they gathered and cried to Moses he said to them: Lo! Allah commandeth you that ye sacrifice a cow(Al-Baqarah:67), they said: are you mocking at us? we brought to you a dead man and you say that we should slay a cow to take a piece of a dead thing and strike with it a dead man so one of the two deads are resurrected, how come? He said to them then: God forbid that I should be among the foolish! How shall I deny the command of God and He commands me and I am His prophet? Then he said: is not the water of a man is a dead semen and also that of a woman and when both meet God creates out of them both a living human? are not your seeds that you plant in your lands go rotting and dead and God then make them alive with His will and let out of them these good ears and also these beautiful trees? And after this speech they were convinced and amazed and accepted what he desired of them and then they said to him: pray to your Lord to explain for us what kind is she? He answered: Verily she is a cow neither with calf nor immature; (she is) between the two conditions, and then they said to him: pray to your Lord to explain for us her color, he answered: He says verily she is a yellow cow. Bright is her colour, gladdening beholders, they said: Pray for us unto thy Lord that He make clear to us what (cow) she is. Lo! cows are much alike to us; and Lo! if God wills, we may be led aright, he said then: Verily she is a cow unyoked; she plougheth not the soil nor watereth the tilth; whole and without mark.
It is said then that they did not find any cow with such describtion except of that cow that was owned by the kid so they asked to buy it from him and so he asked for a price that was as much as her skin could behold of gold, so they went back to Moses and told him about what happened and he said to them: buy her with that price and you must slay that one in special, and so they did and they slain her and said to him: what shall you command us with O prophet of God, so then God inspired to him to let them strike some part of her and strike the dead with it and so they took her tail and stroke the dead with it and said to the dead: who killed you O man? He then said: my cousin killed me who carried me to Moses the prophet of God, and thus when the truth showed up and the killer was known by the clue that could not be denied because it is a truthful testimony that God made it as He makes the non-living things speak to show the truth by the hands of His prophet, and so the man was killed as a punishment and the people got rid of a great anarchy that they never did see before, and that is God's saying: And We said: Smite him with some of it. Thus Allah bringeth the dead to life and showeth you His portents so that ye may understand(Al-Baqarah:73).
In another narration it is that there was an old man among the Israelites who had riches and fortune, and he did not have anyone to inherit him except of one son, so then the kid's cousins killed him for they were greedy for the money of his father, and after killing him they threw his body at the gate of the town far away from their place to make the charge far away from themselves, and then they came asking for revenge for his blood, so God then ordered them to slay a cow and strike him with some of her so he will be resurrected and tell them who is the killer, and in a speech it is said that if they just took any cow then it would be enough for them but they made it long by asking so much questions so God then made it harder for them by telling more charactersitics for this cow. They say that the kid said to Moses: O prophet of God, how shall I keep these riches and how shall I be aware against an enemy that would take them and an envier that would envy me for it? He answered him: say upon them what you used to say before you have them for the One who gave it to you with your true belief before shall keep them for you then after, and his (the kid's) deed was that he used to say the pray for the prophet Muhammad and his Household (PUT), and he kept on saying it so that any envier would try to envy the kid God would keep him away from the kid's money.
In the interpretation of the prince of believers (PUH) that he said: the dead man who was resurrected asked God then after by Muhammad and his Household (PUT) to stay in this life and enjoy life with his cousin (he wanted to marry) and defeat his enemies and be given fortunes in abundance, so God gave him that life with his full senses, so he enjoyed the life with his cousin and never departed from one another and they died together and had been in paradise together as gifted couples..etc, and in a copy for the interpretation of Al-`Askari (PUH): the folks of the cow who bought it and asked for revenge and lost lot of money to buy her went to Moses crying and said: we are sent poor again and the rest of the tribe and we made astray for our doubts, so Moses then guided them to ask God by the prophet (PUH) and his Household (PUT), so when they did that with pure hearts and true faith, God then inspired to Moses: let their chiefs go to ruined house of that man (a man among them) and let them dig in that specific location and get out whatever money is there and they will find there ten thousand dinars (coins), so they will gain again whatever they lost after buying the cow so that their conditions would get back to what it was before buying the cow, and then they shall divide the surplus of the money among them and it was five thousand dinars according to the amount of money that each one of them had paid.
As a result their riches increased and been rich because they asked God by the prophet and his Household and they thought that they are better than all the nations, and God said: Then, even after that, your hearts were hardened and became as rocks, or worse than rocks, for hardness. For indeed there are rocks from out which rivers gush, and indeed there are rocks which split asunder so that water floweth from them. And indeed there are rocks which fall down for the fear of Allah. Allah is not unaware of what ye do(Al-Baqarah:74). So, their hearts were hardened and were out of mercy and goodness after they were full of passion and faith and that was when they saw the miracles by the bless of the existance of Moses and the light of prophecy and the virtue of mentioning the name of Muhammad and his Household (PUT) and believing in them and in their secret that is within every prophet and messanger, so peace of God upon them all.
Some people of philosophy said some good opinions about this matter and that is the case of the cow and telling the story in Quran was to show how much the Israelites were stubborn and harsh and slow to obey the commandments of God, and the purpose was not to show the conditions of the story and the regulations involved and not to show the wisdom of ordering them to slay a cow, but the purpose was to show us some of their harshness and their bad conditions and habits and it had no connection to any other stories before or after it, and the one after it is: And (remember) when ye slew a man and disagreed concerning it and Allah brought forth that which ye were hiding(Al-Baqarah:72), and this is mentioned to show a special way in treating a problem that the Israelites never thought of or anyone else would think of and that is giving a law to know the murderer, then he (the narrator) explained what he claimed by saying: what I understood from the first story is that the Israelites had an incident that they were buffled about it and that is there was a killed a man and his killer is now known and lot of people were under the charge, and they went to Moses and he answered them that God orders you to slay a cow, so they were amazed for his request and said: do you mock at us? Then he explained the event in details and he (Moses) wanted to apply the law over whoever is the doner by admitting or by clues, and since he had nothing of that for they were so stubborn he ordered them to buy the cow and they slain her and stroke his body (the dead) with some of her flesh, so God resurrected him and he told who is the killer and he was punished (the killer), then he (the narrator) said: and the second story which is about God's saying: And (remember) when ye slew a man and disagreed concerning it and Allah brought forth that which ye were hiding(Al-Baqarah:72), it was about a man who was found dead in his home or his place or died in a battle between two groups of people and his killer was not known and no one admitted his crime and the killer could not be found and everyone is charging the other for killing him, so then he (Moses) started to do what was mentioned before to give a way to know by reason the killer and that God wants to give the judges and rulers a way to know the killer among the charged persons, and this opinion is supported according to him by God's saying: And (remember) when ye slew a man and disagreed concerning it..etc(Al-Baqarah:72), as if God wants to let out of their hearts and souls what they kept a secret by signs of changes in the person himself like getting yellow or nervous or by his movements and the change of his looks or by his happiness and sadness and crying.
The direct is to strike the charged man with the leg of the dead man or with his hand as to make a contact with the body so might be there some changes that would make him admit his crime or at least to be of strong doubt about him so that he would be put in prison until he admits his crime and to tell about his companions in the crime, or he might show a sign like shaking and by this he shall be known as he is the killer indeed and no one else. The he (the narrator) said: this thing is because of the nature of the psychological habits and the inner mind of the human being, then he (the narrator) began to give examples from tales and stories that were so long and there are many analyses and philosophies and practical means that are done by men of investigations and rulers..etc, and the benefit differs by the person and his intellegence.
If killing was for revenge for honor then the reaction would be a combination of happiness and fear and otherwise it would be something opposite to this and so on. He (the narrator) brought the clue about the independence of the two stories (the cow and the dead man) in the two holy phrases by saying: if we looked into the previous stories that God did mention in this chapter (Al-Baqarah), and all of them are related to the Israelites, we would find that each one of them is independent to the one before and to the one after and starting with "and when" so God did say: And (remember) when We did deliver you from Pharaoh's folk(Al-A`râf:141), And when We brought you through the sea and rescued you(Al-Baqarah:50), And when We did appoint for Moses forty nights(Al-Baqarah:51), And when We gave unto Moses the Scripture(Al-Baqarah:53), And when Moses said unto his people: O my people! Ye have wronged yourselves(Al-Baqarah:54), And when ye said: O Moses! We will not believe in thee till we see Allah plainly(Al-Baqarah:55), And when We said: Go into this township(Al-Baqarah:58), And when Moses asked for water for his people(Al-Baqarah:60), And when ye said: O Moses! We are weary of one kind of food(Al-Baqarah:61), And (remember, O Children of Israel) when We made a covenant with you and caused the mount to tower above you(Al-Baqarah:63), And when Moses said unto his people: Lo! Allah commandeth you that ye sacrifice a cow(Al-Baqarah:67), And (remember) when ye slew a man and disagreed concerning it(Al-Baqarah:72), then he (the narrator) said: this continuous style that did not change makes the matter of the killing and the disagreement about it is something independent of the other stories before..etc. This is the end of what Abdul-Wahâb Al-Najjâr did say in his tales.
So we say you did fine and good with what you learned about the last holy phrase: And (remember) when ye slew a man and disagreed concerning it(Al-Baqarah:72), and it is an acceptable manipulation and conclusion that people of art see as the right thing, and we do not see any prohibition in looking for benefits from the holy phrases of the Quran and most of the knowledgement is taken from Quran, and all the groups of muslims take what they see as a creed for themselves from Quran, and it is mentioned that Quran has boundries and there boundries over the boundries, and it has seventy seven layers of secrets and it has the strangest and the weirdest, and there are phrases that has no similar in it and others are similar to each other, and the interpretations for both types is not known except by God and those who are into the deepest of knowledge.
But it is apparent that those who are into the deepest of knowledge are those who Quran was revealed upon and in their houses and they are the prophet (PUH) who was sent with it to all the creations of thought, and also his viceroys and the leaders after him and God appointed them to save the religion and he is the prince of believers, `Ali ben Abi Tâlib (PUH) and he is the one that had the place of the prince of believers and it is only called for him, but it is used to denote others because of the sutbborness, and also whoever came after him of his infallibe children, and the first of them is Al-Hasan, and the last of them is the awaited viceroy and the son of Al-`Askari (PUH) may peace be upon them all. God did say: And whatsoever the messenger giveth you, take it. And whatsoever he forbiddeth, abstain (from it)(Al-Hashr:7), so the dependence after the prophet (PUH) must be upon them (the viceroys) to save the regulations of the islamic religion and to solve its problems, and they are the people of Quran and the people of the prophecy, and the people of the house knows better what is inside, and peace for him who follows the path of guidance and feared the punishments of God, and God is the One that shall take care of us.

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